I would have been a little annoyed but brushed it off with a joke. People like that will never get it. As far as that stuff goes I AM the man. I built my own deck, refinished my cabinets and replastered my boyfriend's dining room.

In return my boyfriend cooked me dinner. I joke that he is going to make a fine wife some day.

I was single a long time before I got married, and I got fairly proficient at home and auto repairs. My dad taught me how to tune up a car, change and check oil and add water to radiators and jump-start cars and change tires...all of which I've done, including changing tires on the freeway. I've also put beds together, assembled a lawn mower (using my spark plug socket and a screwdriver) and assembled bookcases and desks.

One thing I've noticed: If I'm jumpstarting a man's car, they try to take over (except for Mr. Sirius, but I just let him do it anyway). I have a particular process that I follow, and it might take more time than just slapping the cables on and cranking the engine, but I follow this process because it's safe. When I'm ready to start my car I tell everyone to move away from the engine compartment, and most people can figure out why I'm telling them that, and if someone won't move then I won't jumpstart their car.

When I'm ready to start my car I tell everyone to move away from the engine compartment, and most people can figure out why I'm telling them that, and if someone won't move then I won't jumpstart their car.

Clearly they have never seen someone who has had battery acid splashed across their face. If they had, they would move.

Logged

"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."

a couple of years ago i bought 2 beds from the same company. bubs bed was delivered first. the delivery man put it together for me since that was part of his job. that bed wobbled nonstop for a long time.

when the second bed was delivered he said he'd put it together. when i said no thanks and i'd do it myself he shook his head in disbelief. that bed does NOT wobble and never did.

when mum moved out of her house about 5 years ago one of her friends husband and one of his friends was helping move some of the bigger stuff (they volunteered).mum had a waist high small round table (about an arm span across). mums friends hubby (MFH) tried to get the table out of the house but couldnt get it thru the front door. not surprising really since all he was doing was picking the table straight up. he wouldnt listen to me when i said all it needed was to put the table on its side and roll it thru. of course he said that was a stupid idea. he said he'd go home and get some tools so he could undo the leg base from the bottom.

so he left. by the time he'd returned i'd tipped the table over on its side and rolled it thru. it was sitting outside waiting to go on his truck.

i told him i knew it would go thru because when mum moved in I'd been the one to move everything in and he should have listened to me.

im a bit of a girly girl but every bit of furniture ive put together stays together forever.

my brother once asked the secret of my wobble free furniture. mum told him it was because i was a dab hand at hammering screws in

Happened to me, too. I was getting my oil changed, and the man with the clipboard motions me into the work area and points to the pine cone parts and acorns around the air intake for the engine. He said when I get home, I need to get my husband to vacuum those out and put a piece of metal screening over the intake so the rodents don't try to move in again. I have no husband anymore, I told him, and he said, "well, your boyfriend, then."

As I was doing this, myself, I thought a couple things. 1. I chastised myself for criticizing dear departed husband for saving virtually everything, because now I needed a piece of hardware cloth about 6" square. That would be just the thing I would have looked at and thought, "What good is something that small? Toss it." 2. Having accomplished that, and changing out the thermostat, and the kitchen faucet in the last couple months, I still had no plan for dinner. I thought to myself, "I need a wife."

I will go back there because on the whole they do a good job, get me in and out in a timely manner. They also, (and this is a big plus for me) act as if they respect themselves and the work they do. That trumps a ham-handed attempt at small talk, in my book. YMMV.